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Never understood this type of concern. I would never buy a new house. Old homes especially in the 20s and 30s are ideal. They are high quality, unique, and have incredible detail. They are usually also in ideal locations. New homes are built with cheap materials and invest in cosmetic garbage like backsplashes rather than the bones. Old houses are all I would ever buy.

I can understand the aesthetic and historic value of old houses but what do you mean by high quality ? Stronger frame ? They might not even have insulation, AC ducts. The finishes have definitely been renovated multiple times so they can be as good or bad as new houses.

Interesting. I'm not very familiar with pros and cons. I like old houses, specially when they're renovated. I just don't know how good people were at building houses back then, how durable the materials are, and what is the effective age of a house.

Yep, older houses are made of steel, solid woods, and are over engineered (they've been through 100 years of earth to prove it). Most new construction is made of cheap plastics. Insulation and windows are an easy replacement. Old houses have excellent ducts and 20s or 30s will have beautiful oversized vents which were designed for oil rather than forced air.

@public2 That's appeal to nature, not reason. Synthetic materials are often better than "natural". E.g. OSB boards are much stronger than natural wood. Modern houses are built with knowledge gained over all these decades.

To see the fine craftsmanship today, you just got to get out of the factory produced homes. If you are in the Bay Area go see the custom built homes in places like ruby hill in pleasonton, Blackhawk, Saratoga, Los Altos hills etc.

As long as load bearing structure is fine, go for it. Make sure framing has no termite or water damage. Everything else can be modernizied/renovated. One issue with old houses is toxic materials e.g. lead paint. If you are doing any work on the house, make sure it's properly handled. Old houses usually have poor thermal insulation and no ducts for central AC, heating. It can be retrofitted but could be expensive.

Lead, asbestos, faulty electric wire chewed up my rats, mold, foundation issues, insects, arsenic compounds, mercury , and if renovated in the 50-60s add to that random toxic fumes from plastics. Water pipes from toxic metals. And might want to get a Geiger counter, my parents 1920’s home beeped like an annoying children’s toy. We never found the true source except to narrow it down to something in the walls, it was just dumb luck my dad had Geiger counter lying around and decided to play with it.

My house was built in 1880. It's been through a Reno and we did more. You will likely find crazy shit but if it checks off the list then I'd do it again. It isn't like new homes don't have problems or toxins, we just don't know about it yet. Get a contractor you can trust and keep him, you'll be fine. Get a good inspection, don't follow your Realtors guy. Realize they will miss things and yeah you'll pay for it.